Tuesday, February 12, 2013

So what are the "Arab speeches" Hagel failed to report? The linked story (from the main Fox News site) explains:

In the supporting documents he turned over to Senate investigators as part of his confirmation process, Defense Secretary-designate Chuck Hagel did not disclose at least two recent speeches on the subject of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Fox News has confirmed.

Obama administration sources and lawmakers said Hagel was required to declare to the Senate Armed Services Committee any "formal speeches" he had given since the start of January 2008....

According to materials and documents compiled by Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism and provided to Fox News on Monday, Hagel appeared before the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) on June 13, 2008, serving as keynote speaker at the group's convention that year....

The records compiled by the Investigative Project on Terrorism also show that Hagel spoke at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies on September 22, 2008. The list of speeches the nominee has given since January 1, 2008 that Hagel himself submitted to the Armed Services Committee in support of his nomination does not include the ADC or Georgetown events....

Oh, and here's a picture from the archives of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, captioned as follows:

Dole holds up check from Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee
Date:August 2002
Description:4x6 color shot of Dole holding a check for $90,000 from above Committee, with Board Chair Ahmad Sbaiti at Marriott Hotel in Washington DC, with news story by Nizar Wattad

Wow, this must be a really radical organization!

And the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University? Well, I look at the schedule for the group's upcoming symposium "The Mediterranean Reimagined," and here's a partial list of scheduled talks:

"The Mediterranean as Barrier in Arabic Cartography and History"

"Movement and Paperwork in the Early Modern Mediterranean"

"The 'Nuptial Bed': The Mediterranean in the Saint-Simonian Imagination"

Well, you know all academic papers are written by America-haters, right?

So that's Fox's big new scandal about Hagel. Yeah, he'll be filibustered.

(And yes, it's "American-Arab," not "Arab-American," though many reports seem to get that wrong.)

6 comments:

I don't find it too much to ask that the Minister of Defense of the Homeland's loyalties lie first and foremost with the Homeland. All who question Hagel's loyalties are the Neville Chamberlands of our time.